Think I just experienced an Ocular Migraine

[NarwhalZ]

Well today was an experience...

I was going for lunch when I saw a blind spot in the middle of my eye that was slightly zig-zaggy with blind spots and looked a bit like and illusion at the same time. Its very hard to explain.

I was slightly worried that maybe I had done some random damage with my laser whilst pointing it at a wall but I soon realized it was spreading out into more of a patchy ring shape which over 30 mins eventually faded away past the edges or my peripheral vision. This whole process took about 30 mins :wtf:

I now currently have a bit of a headache on the right side of my head which was expected after searching up what was going on and really don't know what triggered it. From what I have seen online it's nothing major but I will be trying to find out what triggered it.

Just thought I would post this experience to see if anyone else has experienced this before. Thanks for reading.

- Jay

 

[BobMc]

If it's what I experienced, it's comes with with age and the harding of the eye ball. I talked to my optometrist about it and he showed me some pictures of what I experienced. He said it was normal. Not saying what you experienced was the same, but if so. I would still talk to your eye doctor because you never know it could be something total different? :thinking:

Ps, not saying your getting old.

 

[Alaskan]

Welcome to the club, mine come without pain of any kind but can make reading difficult for five minutes.

 

[NarwhalZ]

If it's what I experienced, it's comes with with age and the harding of the eye ball. I talked to my optometrist about it and he showed me some pictures of what I experienced. He said it was normal. Not saying what you experienced was the same, but if so. I would still talk to your eye doctor because you never know it could be something total different? :thinking:

Ps, not saying your getting old.

Hey... i'm only 17... :crackup:

But yes I may go to a doctor when I get home to double check to be safe.

Welcome to the club, mine come without pain of any kind but can make reading difficult for five minutes.

At least i'm not the only one. Someone who works around me also gets them. They seem to be more common than I had thought.

 

[BobMc]

Welcome to the club, mine come without pain of any kind but can make reading difficult for five minutes.

Yea, that's it. It goes away after a short time. What's weird, is if your trying to do something precise at the moment, it can make it all sorts of fun.

Hey... i'm only 17... :crackup:

But yes I may go to a doctor when I get home to double check to be safe.

At least i'm not the only one. Someone who works around me also gets them. They seem to be more common than I had thought.

Best to get it checked. Hoping the best.

 

[waffailtrager101]

I wouldn't worry too much about it too much. From what you have described, sounds just like an ocular migraine. I'm 19 and will get them every now and then. I believe mine are caused by dehydration because I will get them after a long workout with few water breaks or when I've been out all day and missed a meal.

I basically get a waxing crescent moon-shaped blind spot in my right eye and to get rid of it i usually drink plenty of water (what i find fixes most minor health issues), stop looking at electronic screens cuz they are strenuous on the eyes, and keep my affected eye closed. If it doesn't get better take some ibuprofen or aspirin to help.

The first time I got one was after playing basketball for a few hours straight. I tried explaining to my father the blind spot in my eye and he thought i was concussed . Thankfully I talked to mom about it and she told me that she gets them as well.

Take it easy

 

[Alaskan]

I've gotten mine when eating spicy food sometimes.

 

[RedCowboy]

My father gets those and they pass pretty quickly, something like 20 minutes starting from the center out, he said they come in groups then not for a long while.

I will likely have them later, I already have chronic tinnitus, yep there it is right now, I've just learn to ignore it.

If you have any doubts of course see a doctor, but it sounds exactly like what he gets, his eye Dr. was not concerned about it.

 

[paul1598419]

I would check with an ophthalmologist as what you describe doesn't seem like a migraine. You are missing the overwhelming pain in your head. Ocular migraines do have flashes of light and lightening shapes of light prior to the intense pain. Yours sounds a bit different.

 

[RedCowboy]

My father gets them with ZERO pain, eye Dr. said it's an ocular migraine, he said they start in the center with zigzag and work their way outward.

Still it's a good idea to see an eye Dr. but Dad has had many and never any pain.

 

[paul1598419]

Had to go back to my pathology books to see, but there are people who have been diagnosed with these kinds of migraines without the awful headache that often accompanies them. Seems that they usually occur in just one eye and can cause all sorts of vision problems, the most frequent are flashes of light and the zig zag patterns that accompany them.

 

[Benm]

I'm not really sure if 'migraine' is the correct term for this, but it does happen in general and often for no apparent reason either.

I have migraine sometimes, but quite rarely, perhaps once or twice a year on average, and sometimes they come with odd visual illusions as well. For me it's more like a strobing light, but i presume it varies between people and can also happen without the painful part.

It could be comparable to tinnitus in that your sensory systems register something that is not actually there, and those can be cause by both the brain and the sensory organs (eyes or ears). In can also work on other senses like touch where people for no reason feel like ant's are crawling all over them, and those episodes sometimes pass after short while with no lasting or even detectable effect.

Essentially it's either a hallucination, or some malfunction in a sensory system (with tinnitus this can be the case).

If you suffer from something like that it's always good to have it checked out by a doctor to to rule out any serious ailment, but if that is ruled out you have little choice but to live with it.

 

[Alaskan]

My doctor calls them optical migraines, my understanding is they don't normally have pain, so why are they called migraines... Tinnitus, been there, still there.

 

[RedCowboy]

Low serotonin can cause overactive nerves and sensations, the ocular migraine however is possibly a headache in the occipital lobe and could be from low blood flow or the insulation around nerves allowing misfires to start a cascade, it's not known but it is a short duration temporary occurrence where as tinnitus is often chronic as mine is almost always there.

 

[Razako]

I've had several of them going back 5+ years. The first time I wondered if I'd somehow ingested a psychedelic drug or something as I saw all these multi-colored zigzags going through my vision. After about 30 minutes they faded away and I was left with a minor headache for a few hours. They've never done me any real harm, and only occur once per year on average, so I haven't felt the need to see a doctor or anything.

 

[WizardG]

So that's what that is. My wife and I both get this from time to time. Red and blue zig-zags through part of the field in (usually) one eye. We call it 'having rainbows', as in I have rainbows right now, can you make the coffee?

When I was building my high power LED lights in the kitchen she got them pretty often. High brightness point sources in an array seem to trigger them for us.